#talkofthetown

It was my second time at this exclusive resort in douro Valley — it’s never too much to say that this region in the north of Portugal (90 minute drive from Porto) is worldwide famous by the wines and listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its unique landscape — since it started being managed by the Asian company Six Senses. For those you have missed my previous experience, fell free to read about it here. New for 2017, Six Senses…

Our collective imagination was already wild when it comes to French luxury pastry brand Ladurée, best-known for its mouth-watering macarons (among other things), but director Sofia Coppola has definitely raised the bar in the film “Marie Antoinette” — she…

If you are into design and architecture, you probably know Sou Fujimoto for interventions like the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London or, more recently, for his collaborating with COS on a Forest of Light installation during Milan Design Week. What you probably don’t…

Über cool Mexican Habita Group (with several properties in Mexico and Hotel Americano in New York) is just about to open two new hotels, side by side, in Chicago’s hip neighborhood of Wicker Park/Bucktown: The Hollander and The Roby.…

For the third year in a row, Le Bristol Paris, still one of my faves hotels in town — a classic is a classic, right? — has invited, in collaboration with Parisian art galleries, top contemporary artists to display…

One of these days I was looking for a nice spot near Lisbon — but not in Lisbon, I was determined about that point — for a photo shoot. Nothing pretentious or excessively complicated, since the idea, as usual,…

It’s official now and online influencers, even more than the so-callled jet set, are spreading the news on their social media: Maison Chanel has opened a spa, the very first of its kind, at the revamped hotel Ritz Paris.…

Don’t get me wrong but hostels are okay when you are a teen or twenty-something, after that, believe me, you don’t want to share a room with strangers unless you really have to. Nevertheless, I must admit that I…

Exquisite fabrics, gilded mirrors, carved stucco ceilings, Murano glass chandeliers, original furnishing… You name it. Bauer Palazzo has all that and a lot more, including a delicious mix of Venetian and art deco architecture, which explains in part why travelers…